Media Watch

Santa Schools Counsel St. Nicks to Encourage Faith

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, Nov. 21 — Anticipating difficult questions from kids this year in the wake of Sept. 11, Santa Claus training schools are giving store Santas ideas about how to answer fears, the business daily reports. Some children might be asking the jolly bearded ones about how they might get back parents who perished in the terrorist attacks.

IPI Inc., a Toledo, Ohio, school that sends Santas to malls in the Midwest and Florida, instructs students to tell worried children to have faith in God and family, remind them that the world has been through difficult times before and counsel them that good always conquers evil.

Instructor Tom Valent at the Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School in Midland, Mich., says he often tells fearful children, “I'm better at making toys, but I'll go home and talk to Mrs. Claus about it, and we'll say a prayer tonight.”

FDA Approves Contraceptive Skin Patch

ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 21 — The federal Food and Drug Administration approved the first contraceptive skin patch, the news service reported.

Ortho-Evra, made by Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceuticals, is the fourth contraceptive to be approved within the past year. It prevents pregnancy by emitting the same hormones used in birth-control pills. The Church teaches that use of artificial contraception is a grave evil.

The wire service quoted a contraception expert saying the patch is the easiest-to-use method yet in the nation's trend toward longer-acting contraceptives. But the patch carries the same risks as the pill, including blood clots, heart attack and stroke.

Post-Sept. 11 Church Attendance Surge Not Sustained

THE NEW YORK TIMES, Nov. 26 — Though some religious leaders saw a religious revival after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, church attendance seems to be returning to pre-attack levels, the New York daily says.

The Times reports that 47% of people polled by Gallup in the 10 days after Sept. 11 said they had attended church or synagogue in the previous week. But by early November, that figure had dropped to 42%.

“I just don't see much indication that there has been a great awakening or a profound change in America's religious practices,” said Frank Newport, Gallup's editor in chief. “It looks like people were treating this like a bereavement, a shorter-term funeral kind of thing, where they went to church or synagogue to grieve.”

In New York City, though, where the Times says the pain of the attack is most intense, many churches report sustained crowds.

And the Times found that the events of Sept. 11 were a watershed in some people's religious commitment. The paper quotes a 40-year-old Catholic in Los Angeles who said she is much more committed now, increasing her Mass attendance from twice a week to daily.

Justices Hear Arguments on Internet Porn Law

LOS ANGELES TIMES, Nov. 29 — Easy access to pornography on the Internet is an “urgent national problem,” U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson told the Supreme Court, which is reviewing a law that requires commercial pornographers to put tighter controls on their Internet products.

The American Civil Liberties Union says the law limits free speech, but justices seemed to feel the commercial interests could be so regulated. They will rule on Ashcroft vs. ACLU in several months.